A Conversation with Anatole Dolgoff,
author of Left of the Left
Tuesday, May 2, 7:00 PM
@ Local Sprouts Cooperative cafe
649 Congress Street, Portland, Maine

The Southern Maine group of the Industrial Workers of the World labor union is proud to present Anatole Dolgoff, author of AK Press’s Left of the Left: My Memories of Sam Dolgoff. Anatole will be appearing at Local Sprouts Cooperative cafe at 649 Congress Street in Portland, Maine on Tuesday, May 2 at 7:00 PM for a discussion of his book, IWW labor organizing, and his famous left activist parents, Sam and Esther Dolgoff.

Book Details:

Sam Dolgoff (1902–1990) was a house painter by trade and member of the IWW from the early 1920s until his death. Sam, along with his wife Esther, was at the center of American anarchism for seventy years, bridging the movement’s generations, providing continuity between past and present, and creating some of the most vital books and journals from the Great Depression through WWII, the Civil Rights era, and into the last decade of the century. This instant classic of radical history, written with passion and humor by his son, conjures images of a lost New York City, the faded power of immigrant and working-class neighborhoods, and the blurred lines dividing proletarian and intellectual culture.

“The American left in its classical age used to celebrate an ideal, which was the worker-intellectual—someone who toils with his hands all his life and meanwhile develops his mind and deepens his knowledge and contributes mightily to progress and decency in the society around him. Sam Dolgoff was a mythic figure in a certain corner of the radical left … and his son, Anatole, has written a wise and beautiful book about him.” —Paul Berman, author of A Tale of Two Utopias and Power and the Idealists

“If you want to read the god-honest and god-awful truth about being a radical in twentieth-century America, drop whatever you’re doing, pick up this book, and read it. Pronto! If you’re not crying within five pages, you might want to check whether you’ve got a heart and a pulse.” —Peter Cole, author of Wobblies on the Waterfront

Since the 9/11 attacks of 2001, the US government has destabilized and invaded country after country in the name of the Global War on Terror. In so doing, they have diverted untold fortunes which could have been used to meet human need toward the disruption of millions of workers’ lives worldwide.

Rather than changing course as they had promised, the Obama administration has elected to continue the Bush administration’s legacy of death and destruction in the Middle East and central Asia and austerity for workers in the US. Time and again, they have demonstrated their willingness to sacrifice the lives and wealth of the working class for the profit of their capitalist patrons.

This week, US Secretary of State John Kerry has announced that the US military is prepared to launch yet another strike, this time on Syria. The Southern Maine IWW condemns any such action in the strongest possible terms and urges workers around the world to organize for an end to war and a transition to a democratically managed economy. Without such control of the productive industrial infrastructure, present and future generations of workers remain vulnerable to the infinitely callous whims of the insatiably avarous 1%.

Southern Maine Wobblies will be tabling near Congress Square (corner of Congress and High) in Portland tomorrow, December 7, from about 5-8 PM as part of the First Friday Art Walk. We’ll be handing out free literature and selling hats (see image at right), stickers, patches, posters, pennants, books, and other items from the IWW Literature Department. See you there!

Workers everywhere, union and non-union, in retail and in other fields, owe a debt of gratitude to the courageous Walmart workers who exercised their right to strike to force America’s largest employer to change for the better, and the Southern Maine Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) stand in solidarity with them. We stand ready to support their fight to improve their workplace conditions, to be treated with respect, to raise their economic standing, and if they so choose, to empower themselves through collective bargaining and direct action.

We recognize that workers everywhere have a moral and legal right to have a voice in the workplace, and when Wal-mart workers recognize and exercise their power to improve their lives, all retail workers, and workers everywhere, will see their living standards improve.

***Southern Maine workers, do you need a union at your workplace? Contact the Southern Maine IWW.***

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